The Pack Is Growing

It seems that the neighbor's little doggy somehow became a mama doggy. It also seems that our long little doggy, Buddha Buddy, may have had a hand (well not exactly a hand) in this matter. But this one doesn't seem too Buddha-y and for some reason The Fuzz's Sweetie and Young Daughter couldn't resist her.So meet the latest member of the pack, known as Lucy.

The Mystery Reveled

In regard to our latest Mystery Pix, (which I might add the canuck guessed correctly) this was indeed floor tiles with plastic spacers. It could be possible that he had some sort of inside information on this subject. But we won't worry about that. The Noprize is his.
The Fuzz made a few pix while he was helping that Home Improving Son with some home improvements.
The first order of business was to decide in which pattern to lay these tiles. Eventually the staggered pattern to the left was chosen.
Since this is a bathroom, there were a number of cutouts to be made. After several unsuccessful attempts, that Resourceful Son worked out the system shown here utilizing a circular saw with a cement cutting blade.
Then, most of the complicated pieces were cut out and laid dry in the hope of avoiding any unpleasant surprises.
Here you can see that Well Equipped Fellow mixing up the "mud". When The Fuzz tried this at home, he had to use a hand trowel. He does not recommend this.
Next the dry laid tiles were pulled up (and carefully marked) and laid in the cement-type stuff.
This was started in the corner in an effort to end at the only door.
The Fuzz had to leave before the job was completely finished, so he had no shot of the finished job.
However, he was able to rip this one off from someone who was there. So here it is.
At last report, the grouting is finished and the commode is back in place. That was a long time to "hold it"!

This Cat Is Not Happy

This Kitty is not happy. They don't seem to enjoy walking around in this stuff. But then, I've never enjoyed walking around in it without shoes either. But she does seem to have found a small place to place the paws. But, the snow is pretty much gone around here now. The Kitties are happy about that. The Doggies come inside from time to time, but we've learned the hard way not to trust a cat. Yes, I'm afraid it's true-

A cat may like to feed on mouse.
But,
A cat will poop inside your house.

So The Fuzz's advice is, "Never trust a cat". I suppose this might seem a bit hard hearted considering the snow and all, but this advice comes though painful experience.

And since we are dealing with Cabin Fever here, The Fuzz would like to present one more exciting ,
Mystery Pix!

Even Another Snow Post

Yes, even another Snow Post. There seems to be a lot of this thing going on these days. If we were in Buffalo it would be expected maybe, but this is The South. But The Fuzz said it was time for a new post, and this was what he came up with. Enjoy.
He also has been accused of putting up Mystery Pix that are simply too difficult. They think it is imposable without insider information. Now this one from back on 1/28/10 was admittedly taken from an unusual angle. But hey, they're Mystery Pix, right?
And now, there have been objections to our latest Mystery Pix!
Well, The Fuzz has admitted that he did play with it just a little bit, but remember, there has to be some mystery here. This is a common everyday (well maybe not every day) item.
There were some great guesses on this one. But it seems to be time to put this one to bed too. And so, we present-

Elmer's Glue

We Are Not Jealous

Well, The Fuzz has posted his pictures of our puny little snow. Seems like those folks up north wanted to show him how it's really done. I suppose, they thought he'd be jealous. But they'd better think again. You can keep it. Here, we can actually see the ground! Have fun, y'all!

It has come to our attention that our latest Mystery Pix has a few people stuck. This is a sticky situation. But there is a bit of Bull* involved. The object in question is certainly smaller than a breadbox, (if any one remembers them) but bigger than a cell phone (we do remember them).


*This clue is probably as obscure as the breadbox, maybe worse.

Recycleing

Lest you think That Fuzz has just been laying around doing nothing, we thought it would be good to give an update on our homeimprovements. Those with good memories may remember when we were trying to get approved by the county. Among other things we had to install some porches at our 2 "means of egress".
This way all fine and good but while it satisfied the county, it did lack certain amenities such as a roof for example. It was rather inconvenient when trying to unlock the door in the rain. The Fuzz had been planning to take care of this inconvenience for a while now, but all the rain and snow was slowing things down a bit.
This weekend he finally got a shot at it. He had salvaged some lumber and tin from the old place and brought it out to the woods. It had lain here under 2 snowstorms and plenty of rain, but now it was time to drag it out.
At the top is a shot of the beginning of the work. Next is some of the work getting the posts ready for the assembly.
The Fuzz used the old technique of making multiple passes with a circular saw and then chiseling out the excess wood to form the joints. This is crude and effective, but hardly "Joinery".
The Fuzz was careful to plunb things up and here you can see some lag bolts being installed to strengthen the posts.
Despite all his hard work, as darkness gathered, the job was not quite finished.
The framing was finished, but only part of the tin.

With more rain, sleet and snow in the forecast, we really wanted to get this project finished up. So The Fuzz jumped right on it when he got back from work. And lastly, we have a look at the finished project.Now we'll see how well it turns the rain.

Let's Try It Again

Since we had no success on our latest Mystery Pix, maybe it's time to just give up on that one. But just for the record, this is a shot looking up between 2 of these storage silos at a defunct cement block plant near where The Fuzz works*.

Here's a look at the entire place.Maybe we'll get some more pix of this place up here sometime. But right now, we need a new Mystery Pix.

So, have a go at this one.

*Click on the pix if you waht a better look!

Micro-Glacier

And you may ask, "Just what is this 'Micro-Glacier' thing?"
Well, we're glad you asked. Let me explain this strange phenomenon. Note in the picture to the right, the roof line. That strip of ice hanging down there is our very own Micro-Glacier.

It seems that our new tin roof is just the thing for this. Apparently, after the snow and ice have accumulated up there, they begin that slow slide to the edge.Here's a closer look from the inside, the tunnel, if you will. If you look close*, you may even see the indentations of the "V's" from the tin. The fuzz was amazed at how far down this glacier would hang without breaking off. This sort of thing does make using the door a bit interesting.
And lastly, here's a pix taken the next morning from inside. Notice how far our glacier is hanging down in front of the window.Eventually, it did break off, but if was kinda cool while it lasted. Well, it's sleeting outside again. Maybe we can start on a new one.

*As always, you can click on the pix for a closer look!

Chimney Series #10

Like Old Times

Winter is still here. Here's a look at that Infamous Fuzz clearing up a bit of this global warming. The shameful truth is, if you dig far enough into his shadowy past, The Fuzz actually has Yankee origins. So this is not a complete novelty to him. But he would be perfectly satisfied to leave it as a once a year thing. Just a little reminder of The Old Country.
We spent the weekend holed up here in the woods. By Sunday evening they had called off school, but The Fuzz fully expected to work. It turned out otherwise. It seems that although the street dept. has been quite busy, there would be no garbage pick ups today.
He was given the option of taking the day off (as a "vacation" day). So he figured he'd take it. It wasn't a wasted trip into town since there were some errands to run anyway. 1st was to feed the cat. This little fella is on the edge, mentally, and could not handle the move to the forest. So since we come by the old place frequently, we just feed him there. He seems to get by OK.
Then, The Fuzz slipped by the Home Improvement Store to pick up a couple boards for a future project. Next door was the Office Max for an ink cartridge for our non functioning printer*. Lastly, a stop at the Grocery Store for cat, dog and people food.
He made it home safe and sound. Since "they" were calling for more of this questionable weather, he decided to take down another dead tree in the nearby woods. After a bit of unpleasantness with the chainsaw, this was accomplished and The Fuzz and His Sweetie stacked the fresh fuel near the trailer.
All in all, not a bad day. And for supper, a glass of wine and some hamburgers!

Don't forget about our latest extremely challenging Mystery Pix.

*Unfortunately, it's still non-functional.

Chimney Series #9

It's A Lie

As can be seen, the snow is still with us, and we are still holed up here in the woods. I suppose, if we wanted, we could get out of here, but what for? Today, "They're" calling for a high of 36°. We don't expect a lot of melting.
So why is this thermometer lying like this? I mean, what's with this 52° stuff. The Fuzz has been out there and he assures us it is not 52° out there. He did say not to hold it against this gullible little gadget. Since it is in the direct sun and next to the trailer, it is understandable that it might be just a little confused.
However, tomorrow is another story. It's back to work for The Fuzz. But we won't worry about that for now.

Here We Go Again

Yes, here we go again. 100% chance of snow. And then, they're calling for sleet and freezing rain! The Fuzz is still wondering about this global warming stuff. We stopped and ate some Mexican Dinner befor heading home. By the time we hit the road it was snowing pretty good. But we made it home OK and The Fuzz quickly brought some wood in.

Here's a shot of a couple of the cat trying to stay out of the snow.

Chimney Series #8

Time to revive this popular series.

Yet Another One

It seems to be time for another exciting
Mystery Pix!And, Whilst The Fuzz was out and about the other day, he came upon this one. And so here we go again.

More on the Floor

As you may be aware, moving out here to the woods is an on-going project. While a most of the floor had been finished before the cold weather, the bathrooms remained. We already had the tile for this, having been ready to start it early on. But in the process, we had discovered a leak, and that took priority. So the tile was pushed to the back of the closet.Well, since it was raining again, and we had plenty of firewood, the time had finally come to give it a shot. We had opted to use this stuff with the stickum already on it. It seemed simple enough, just cut it to fit, peal off the paper backing and stick it on the floor. It was (mostly) simple. The only difficulty was getting the cuts just right. The Fuzz got off to a late start on this project due to a rather late night the day before, so it wasn't all finished till the next day. But here is a look at this latest project out here in our new home in the woods. We'll add a bit of wood strip here on the edge to finish it off. But for now, Another job, well done.

R 2

In a reply to one of our recent posts, maria asks..."What are the other R's?" Well, the 2nd is of course, 'riting.
In this The Fuzz has been somewhat less successful. Back in the days, there was a class called Penmanship. As can be seen from the example here, The Fuzz was not what one would consider an Honor Student. In fact, by the time he reached the 7th grade, he was ordered to abandon cursive writing altogether. This was not too big a sacrifice since he couldn't read it himself.
Now it seems to be possible to read his writin' if he draws the letters rather than attempts to write them, as can be seen here.
But there are other aspects to this writin' stuff besides neatness, stuff like grammar and spelling. Now that grammar stuff can get confusing, so well not get into that here. But that spelling business deserves a word or two. It has been said that the English language is 80% phonetic. The obvious problem here is that 20% is not! If this wasn't enough, how does one know if a mystery word is in the 80% or the 20%? I mean, is this fair? And just who decided what's what here?
The fact is, if not for "spell check" you probably couldn't even read this.
So now we've dealt with two of these "R's". One of these days we may get to the next.

A Pre-Blowout Post

Seems hard to make it on here lately. I don't really know why. Perhaps it's just that time of year- post holidays.
But for us it's not post-holiday any more. That's because this week is our Annual Movie Blowout!
In the past we have done stuff like the Star Wars Trilogy and Lord of the Rings. One year we got a bunch from the local Real to Reel Film Festival.
This year we plan to go with this BBC edition of Pride and Prejudice. It says on the box something about 300 minuets.
Let's see, 300 ÷ 60 = 5.
That's 5 hours of DVD glory.
This should keep us busy for a while.

The Fuzz wants to apologize for neglecting all his loyal readers the last few days. And just so we have something to look at, here's this slightly modified pix of some of the woods around here.

Test Flight

It was time for a test flight of some Christmas Loot. The Fuzz's Sweetie got out her brand new frying thing. After carfully reading the important instructions that came with it, she added the proper amount of oil, and cut it on. The little red light came on, which was a good sign.
But we were waiting for that little green light with the encouraging "Ready To Cook" above. And as you can see, even that one eventually cut on.
And just what was the point in all this?
Well, how about some tasty home made french fries.
And they were tasty. But french fries, as good as they are, are a pretty common sort of thing. The Fuzz's Sweetie is not one to confine herself to only something that you could get at Micky D's.
So, how about Egg Rolls. The Fuzz is quite fond of Egg Rolls. And so, a few days latter, it was time for the Egg Rolls.
You can probably see by now that The Fuzz didn't marry this talented girl merely for her good looks. (As good looking as she is, but this is another subject which we won't get into at this time)
And here's the Yummy Egg Rolls, too bad you can't taste 'em.

Cold

Ice on the bathroom window.
The Fuzz is beginning to wonder about this "Global Warming" stuff.

One Out Of Three

While The Fuzz could never be considered a fanatic regarding "higher education", he does see the necessity for the basics (like those 3 R's). In his long career as a garbageman he has worked with a number of folks who were unable to read. Since The Fuzz, himself, did somehow manage to pick up this useful skill, it has not always been easy to empathize. Perhaps it was a bit like trying to read a foreign language like Français or Español. But no, in these cases one can actually read the words, he just has no idea what they mean. But knowing a few people involved with Chinese Calligraphy makes it easier to understand.
But, as has been mentioned, The Fuzz can, and does on occasion, read books. And here is an artist's rendition* of just one such occasion.

*By a little know local artist

Candle Power

After Christmas we pretty much had the place to ourselves. This was one of those quiet candle lit dinners.
Whilst at the "Sandy's Country Christmas" store, shortly before the big day, we were picking up a few last minute supplies. When the proprietors learned that we actually burn the candles, they thew in a few damaged ones for freebies.
But what, The Fuzz has to ask, use are candles that never get burned? This is the time of year for candles on the table, even when the power's not out. The Fuzz's Sweetie knows how to make things nice.
Here's some of our cool candle holders made out of transmission parts. The semi-carved rock on the right is a souvenir of a special place on the west coast.
Well, for now, it's back to the "old grind". I guess we'll see how this 2010 thing turns out. But, so far, so good.

Then The Rain Came

The Fuzz hopes everyone enjoyed all those wonderful Snow Pix. But it must be noted that he was running a bit behind on these posts. All that snow actually came a few days before Christmas. Hence the title "White Pre-Christmas". Although there was still a bit of snow still around, Christmas Eve was rainy, very rainy.
You may remember this snow covered foot bridge (actually a couple of logs) from that snow post. Well, here is another look* at it Christmas morning.There is quite a difference. Amazingly, the logs are still there after all this.
The Fuzz would like to wish every one a Happy New Year. This year, we actually stayed up for it. We had a few White Russians, and got out the Pride and Prejudice tapes. The Fuzz even got the old muzzle loader out at midnight for the traditional salute.
And now, here it is, the year 2010. It has been a big year for us here. We moved from the old home place out here to the woods. There's still a whole lot of work to do, but we are pretty much settled in now.



*As usual, click on pix for a closer look!